Here is a list of the farms I have been buying from every week at the Strathcona Farmers Market. This is by no means what these farms grow year round, it’s what was available last weekend.
Sunrise Organic Gardens
There is so much I love about Sunrise Organic Gardens — from their tasty greens that get us through the winter, to their beautiful garlic that gets me through the winter — but perhaps my favourite thing is that they plant carrots in their greenhouse which means they bring carrots to the market for May long weekend, every year. I always serve a bowl of these, fresh from the fridge, with a few centimetres of the green still on them in my classes through May and June, and what always gets me is that someone pipes up and says, “wow, these carrots taste so good, they taste like carrots.” It makes me chuckle, because, well, what else would a carrot taste like? But perhaps if you’ve never eaten a carrot from the garden, or a proper carrot grown in healthy soil from a farmers market or u-pick, rather those rubbish “carrots” that come from a mold and are referred to as “baby carrots,”, then I guess you wouldn’t know what a proper carrot tastes like.
carrots
beets
greens, greens, greens
garlic
pea shoots
Edgar Farms
Spring is really here when Edgar Farms shows up to the market, I wrote a blog post last year after visiting their farm. This year the asparagus were late to come to the market because of the cold and wet spring, but they’re in full swing now — for another few weeks. If you’ve never had local asparagus, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
asparagus
pea shoots
Sundog Organic Farm
I won’t write too much about them here because I recently wrote a blog post about them as well. One of my favourite farms, their veg are like no other, we are heading into such an exciting time of year with their tables at the market, every week there is something new.
spinach
spring onions
radish
summer turnip
spuds (last years)
rhubarb
Steve and Dan’s
We are so lucky to have Steve and Dan’s at so many markets in Edmonton. I wrote a post about the word “local” and I plan to write a blog post about it too, it’s a trendy word, a word I love and truly believe in – but it has a very broad definition and it depends who you are talking to. We are so fortunate to have BC next door, although there is some overlap with fruit production between our provinces, BC definitely has one up on us there. Steve and Dan’s does a great job bringing us fruit through the entire year – from the early things like strawberries and cherries, to berries, stone fruit, apples, pears etc., it’s who I buy all of my fruit from. I say it every year – but it’s well worth buying berries when they’re in season, tray freezing, or freezing in portions you need for recipes, so you can enjoy them all winter long.
cherries — yes they’re here
strawberries